There are many different ways to report snow amounts. There are storm totals, calendar day amounts(Midnight to Midnight), and amounts in other 24 periods,(example, daily obs are 12z or 7amEST). So it can get a little confusing when determining what is an actual record and what is close to a record.

For the Baltimore Airport and most of the New York City area these are indeed record amounts of snow.

700mb charts below show the storm blossom and slide more east than north focusing the punch at the Mid-Atlantic. However mature circulation does manage to reach as far north as NYC area by Saturday morning the 23rd.

Friday morning 22nd Friday evening 22nd Saturday morning 23rd

17th, …. 5 days before Blizzard subtropical plume from El Niño region already established. The plume reaches from the equatorial Pacific across Mexico and the Gulf Of Mexico into Georgia, Florida and the Southeast.

19th, … Disturbance over SE has moved away but the tropical plume remains.

21st, … new disturbance southern plains, tropical plume broadens

22nd early, … new disturbance gaining strength while approaching but not yet directly connected to the plume.

22nd late, …maturing storm system mergers with tropical plume,

23rd early, … and throws the moisture into below freezing air across Mid-Atlantic.

Quite impressive, impressive enough to challenge all time snowfall records in several major East Coast cities. Below other El Niño related events in recent weeks, ….

January 08, 2016 Bonnet Carre Spillway to open to divert water out of Mississippi River.

Mississippi River floods, East Coast snowstorms, and Florida tornadoes oddly enough are all in my latest e-book El Niño: The WILD side of the weather cycle…What we know, what we don’t, and WHY you should care!

I show how this years Pacific water temperatures compare to the 1982 and 1997 events and highlight the kind of weather episodes that these stronger El Niño’s tend to bring.